Debate Keeps Brewing About Sports Transfers

Here’s the continuing dilemma facing coaches, parents and fans across the state: Who do you root for in the soap opera known as open enrollment?

Since the state law took effect in 1994, high school students have been able to transfer without changing residence and gain immediate athletic eligibility.

It has created bitter feelings, led to repeated accusations of recruiting, caused coaches to retire rather than try to prevent top athletes from leaving and challenged loyalties.

High-profile schools have benefited most, luring transfers under the guise athletes will have a better chance of winning a championship and gain more exposure to college recruiters.

Coaches claimed open enrollment would widen the gap between the weakest programs and the strongest, and for the most part, that has happened.

Some school districts have begun to restrict those transferring for athletic reasons. The Oxnard Unified School District has one of the most stringent transfer policies in the state. Athletes are ineligible for one year if they transfer without moving. That might work well in Oxnard, a district with five high schools, but it won’t work in large districts like Los Angeles, which has a user-friendly open enrollment policy.

The Alemany High boys’ basketball team added a new wrinkle to the open-enrollment situation this season. The Indians showed you can turn around a program quicker than anyone imagined.

The Indians went from 0-12 in Mission League play in 1998 to co-champions in 1999 because a dynamic new coach, Darryl McDonald, was able to attract five transfers and implement an aggressive style of defense he couldn’t have employed without the new players.

Should Alemany be criticized for bringing in an ambitious coach who was so well respected his club players decided they would be more loyal to him than to their former high schools?

Why should players face taunts for exercising their legal right to switch schools for whatever reason they choose?

But is it right for players who spent three years in a program to lose their starting position as seniors when a transfer student suddenly arrives? Should high school sports be treated like college and the pros, where decisions are made based on winning?

Debate is raging on these issues in gymnasiums, offices and homes in the Valley and Ventura County, as well as throughout the state.

Open enrollment was designed to give parents more choices in selecting a school for their children based primarily on academic reasons.

But athletic reasons have become a key part of the decision-making process for many families.

Look at two sets of baseball-playing brothers, the Wades and the Spectors.

Justin Wade is a senior pitcher at Taft High with a 4.3 grade-point average and 1360 SAT score. His twin, Josh, is a catcher with a 4.6 GPA and 1310 SAT.

The Wades helped Taft reach the City Section baseball playoffs last season with a third-place league finish.

They’re deeply involved in school activities, serving as peer college counselors. They aren’t about to leave Taft.

Joining them on the team last season were Jason and Jeff Spector, starting infielders since their sophomore seasons.

Last summer, the Spectors decided to transfer to perennial power Chatsworth for their senior years.

“I kind of braced myself for the worst,” Coach Rich McKeon of Taft said. “I wasn’t happy to see [the Spectors] go, to say the least. We felt with them back, we would be a good team. They wrote me a nice letter.

“They thanked me and felt they wanted to go to Chatsworth, where the opportunity to win a championship was better.”

The Spectors are good players and good teenagers. They’re smart, hard workers and follow instructions. Their mother still helps the Taft booster club.

Should they be criticized for abandoning their friends at Taft?

“I don’t know if I necessarily agree with it, but I can’t say they were wrong,” Justin Wade said. “They made a big commitment to baseball and want to go 100% and do everything they can for baseball.

“They want the [championship] ring. I’m never going to root against them.

“I’m going to root 100% for Taft and second for Chatsworth.”

If the Spectors think they became better college prospects by transferring to Chatsworth, they’ll be disappointed.

“It didn’t make them any faster or stronger,” said one recruiter.

They have strengthened an already strong Chatsworth team and forced Taft to move on.

“I look [at] what could have been,” McKeon said. “[But] if they want to go, let them go.”

Said Justin Wade: “I like to think we can win without them.”

In this era of open enrollment, these question remain: Who do you root for? The Wades for loyalty? The Spectors for following their dreams? McDonald for doing his job?

Does anyone have an answer?

Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422.